Working on Hunger

image by Helga Fannon

I’m working on Hunger at Beaford Arts in North Devon, with three actors: Alan Humphreys, Lizzie Crarer and Kathryn O’Reilly. We’ve also been visited by dramaturg David Lane and designer Fiona Chivers. We work 10-6pm and in the evenings we cook and eat together. Like those theatre companies in the sixties – except that this is just for two weeks.

Last night, over dinner, we discussed what we would do if we knew we were going to die very soon. One of the actors, Lizzie, said she would write and direct her own play, the play that she really wants to write. Which was strange to hear as that’s what I’m doing.

How far can you go
inside yourself?
No one no one no one knows.
I know.
No one sees this skin.
Underneath.
No one comes with you
this far.
Until the bottom of the world
falls away.
As if you were never attached
to anything.
And you
And you

Hunger is a difficult play, on the page. As a piece of theatre it’s also difficult, but in a different way. I want Hunger to be difficult…and  entertaining. The ‘difficult’ aspect of the play is that the audience won’t get fed the story, the facts need putting back together by the viewer….or not…but the emotional journey should be coherent.

Part of the process of making meaning needs to happen in the minds of those watching. It should be an instinctive, imaginative, non-verbal kind of understanding. I want people to walk out of the theatre arguing over what the play means and what exactly happened to Sadie Jones – and I want them each to defend their own version of events.

What I have loved most about the work so far is that I have never felt, or pretended, that I know what I am doing. I’ve never thought I have the answers about the work, or that I know the right way to work on the play. And I have loved the fact that no one else involved in making the work has come to it with any preconceived notions of how to make theatre….how to put on a play….how to deal with this play. This is the first time in my experience of making theatre that I have not thought that I know what I am doing. Happily, it’s also the first time I’ve surrounded myself with others who also don’t know how to do this.

We’re here to figure out how to work on the play. To figure out what it might mean, what the characters are like, what the layers of reality and dream and imagination are….we are treating the play as an object to be examined and played with. Not an object to be re-written. It’s not about re-writing the play until it fits a particular explanation, it’s about finding a way of working and a way of performing that suits the words, the ideas, the emotion, the characters, the actors.

We were getting stuck with questions about where and who and why and what exactly and intentions and… Kathryn asked me what I wanted. ‘You’re the director. What do you want?’ So after lunch I showed them my homework. It was called ‘what Hannah wants’. The first, main thing I want is to treat the play as a piece of music. Before lunch, I had said that a particular section needed to come down in energy, because we needed a contrast from the previous part, and Kathryn has (rightly) said that wasn’t a good reason to do something. But thinking about the work as music I realised that if there is a musical, rhythmical, tonal reason for something, then that is enough. The other reasons will reveal themselves as we go.

I couldn’t do what we’re doing now on my own….but I also couldn’t have written this play with others…and I couldn’t have started from what we are doing now and then written the play ….the play is way too complex for me to have written it consciously…to have planned it….I think what it has all the way through, because of the way in which I wrote it….is emotional truth….and from there everything else we need can be uncovered.

Hunger tries to get to the heart of us….inside us….tries to write from our imaginations, our bodies, our insides. The characters are real and have daily lives and pasts …but what I wanted to write is everything that is invisible, illogical, incoherent, fleshy, bones…I want to find the words that are written on our skeletons…the words that we hear in our dreams…the meanings, stories, explanations that we give ourselves about who we are but that we can never share with anyone. And the terror of blurred lines between reality and imagination, between dream and consciousness…self destruction, and control, and the desire to …leave everything.

What we are doing in the rehearsal room at Beaford Arts is what Danny and Kim are doing in the kitchen in the play…they are trying to understand what happened to Sadie….and what they are doing is also what the audience will do as they watch. We’re all trying to understand each other…we’re all trying.

Who wants a bite?
‘Six for a pound’
Come on. Bite me. I’m yummy.

[See an early version of Hunger at Camden Peoples’ Theatre 11^th January 5pm]

Hunger is supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and using public funding from the Arts Council England.

- written & directed by Hannah Silva

Cast: Kathryn O’Reilly, Elizabeth Crarer, Alan Humphreys

Leaving Plymouth for a little while…

‘It’s bad luck to have flowers on board a boat. I’m going to have to come down and punch you on the nose-  it’s the only way to reverse the curse…’ [Boat on the water 2009, Stonehouse Plymouth - with Alice Tatton-Brown and Chloe Langford]

Just to let you know….

I’m going to Nottingham tomorrow to be involved in a project called ‘Park in Progress’ - World Event Young Artists.’1000 artists 10 nations 10 days’ (yay I qualify for a ‘young’ scheme)

And then I’m moving to London. I’ll be living pretty near the Olympic Stadium in the East. I’ve never lived in London before. Looking forward to be able to perform at events I’ve had to turn down in the past because of travel costs, going to poetry events and plays and theatre and workshops and better second hand shops….First workshop I’m doing is on Greek Tragedy with Tamasha.

Starting next week I’m ‘playwright in residence’ at the Lady Eleanor Holles School. So my first job is to find out what teenage girls want to make theatre about.

Last chance to see Opposition in the South West on the 18th & 19th October at the Brewhouse Theatre Taunton

First London run of Opposition : at the Ovalhouse - 6-17th November. It took me over a year to get a London venue, and I still love the work as much as when I first made it. So I’ve got a couple of months to try and make my knees work/find appropriate pain killers.

Then a week in Suffolk at Aldeburgh Music to try out ideas for a new opera ‘Thanatophobia’ with the composer Joanna Lee

And I start work on Jerwood supported project ‘Hunger’ back in Devon with a residency at Beaford Arts in December, with dramaturg David Lane, actors Kathryn O’ Reilly, Alan Humphreys and Lizzie Crarer and designer Fiona Chivers. I started writing Hunger three years ago, so excited it’s finally happening, and that I’ve got such a strong team of collaborators to work with.

More soon…

p.s I wrote the first of three columns for Exeunt Magazine: Crisis of Naturalism

- and also, check out this brilliant new resource set up by Sophie Mayer and her students : ‘I don’t call myself a poet’ - Interviews with Contemporary Poets Living and Working in Britain

Introducing ‘Hunger’

Hunger

“I was immediately drawn in. There is intriguing word-play from the get-go and a sense that something intelligent and solid is underneath all the strangeness. I liked that it was hard to pin down, this kept me reading. It breaks form, eschews reality and feels ambitious and dangerous.” Out of Joint reader report

 “When I first read Hunger I was struck by one simple fact: I had never read a play like this before. Not only is it pushing at the edges of what new writing can be, it is pushing at the edges of how a script operates within the theatre-making process. The piece clearly displays one of the most theatre-literate writers I have come across; whilst it engages with a depth of human experience it is also determined in its dramaturgy to communicate that experience through non-literal means – in particular an arresting combination of tone, rhythm, sound, shape, and lateral and associative language.” David Lane, dramaturg and playwright.

Hunger is a play for three characters: Sadie Jones, Danny (her lover), and Kim, her sister.

Hunger portrays the world of Sadie Jones, who wants to disappear. Speech is composed like music; layered words transport us into the chaos of Sadie’s imagination. Hunger crashes between the surrealism of the subconscious and the terrifying emptiness of reality.

Hunger asks what it is not to die, not to run away, but to become absent in your own life. Hunger comes from an urge to write about the invisible drama that happens behind our surface lives – about insomnia, depression, obsessions and all consuming love, about dreams that are more real than reality, and about loving someone intent on self-destruction. The impulse that drives Hunger is a need to use language and image to communicate an almost indescribable physical and emotional response to living.

Sadie Jones wants to negate her body. She has an image of something impaling her, right through her centre. This image takes the pain away. She’s stopped eating, her body is disappearing but she is hungry, for love, for communication…she doesn’t know what for…Because she is loved – and it is partly this intensity that she is trying to escape. Her sister and lover need her so much that she is losing herself.

The text slips between reality and the imagination, between linguistic experimentation, composed speech, poetry and naturalism. Language can be dangerous, not just the meaning, but the sound as well. Inside Sadie Jones is a chaos of words, and outside is silence. It’s a terrifying contrast. This linguistic and sound based approach drives narrative and reveals character in unusual ways.

***

The play can be performed by three women or by two women and one man. My general principle with writing is that I don’t specify what characters look like, I want the roles to be open to all actors (the only restriction with this piece is playing age). With the character of ‘Danny’ gender is also open. There is something both female and male within the core of the character.

I write similarly to how a composer scores music; speeches overlap, a soundtrack might interweave with the dialogue. At times the play requires specific performance and vocal techniques. I have developed these techniques through my performance practice and my background in contemporary music.

Through managing and directing the development part of this project myself I have the opportunity to explore approaches to staging the work with the actors, dramaturg and designer, and the chance to really explore the vocal techniques it requires, possible physicality of the roles, ways of working with image and subtext and the emotional journeys of characters. I already know that the play works great in performance - A-level students did an extract brilliantly a couple of years ago, but it has been rejected by every ‘new writing’ theatre I have sent it to (perhaps that’s not its USP!), so after a while I decided that I must see the work in performance…. I can’t just keep writing one play after another. So this is another way of submitting my ‘plays’ to theatres. Let’s see what happens.

Support from the Jerwood Charitable Foundation means that I can start the process of making this work happen myself. The initial development process will be with actors, a designer (Fiona Chivers) and a dramaturg (David Lane) – and I might get one of those ‘embedded critics’ involved too. Jerwood has already had a big impact on my career and my writing. As well as the incredible support with this play I have benefitted from the Arvon Jerwood mentoring scheme (as a playwright), the Aldeburgh Jerwood Opera Writing Foundation scheme, and currently, an Aldeburgh Jerwood Opera Writing Fellowship (to write an opera with composer Joanna Lee). So I’m a fan. The development schemes they support are brilliant, have impacted my practice and have led to professional writing work. – Next week I’ll be at the BBC for the recording of a radio play I co-wrote with my mentor from the Jerwood Arvon scheme Colin Teevan (it’ll be on Radio 3 in August). Thanks to the opera scheme, as well as having the opportunity to develop a long work together through a fellowship, Joanna Lee and I have collaborated on several short projects (for the Aldeburgh Music Club, and currently as part of Jo’s ‘Apprentice composer in residence’ position with BCMG) – and I’ve discovered that I love libretto writing and working with composers – something I want to keep doing and exploring…

Managing this project on my own comes with disadvantages – with this recent ‘call for actors’ I’m going to have to turn a lot of people down – and if applications keep coming in at this rate that’s going to be a lot of disappointed vibes heading my way. (It’s so hard!!) At some point I’ll have to put together contracts, I have to keep re-jigging the budget as it tightens (don’t worry, actors will be paid) – and I have to try and make this happen without the direct support of a theatre or a producer. –  At this stage at least. And I’m still trying to find suitable rehearsal space for the work. Obviously part of the reasoning behind doing ‘showings’ at the end of the development process is to introduce venues and producers to my work and to generate interest and support for the tour and production of ‘Hunger’.

So there has already been the occasional tearful night (just one, actually), but I’m so excited about this project, excited to be receiving applications to work with me on it from amazing performers, excited to start getting feedback from actors on the script, incredibly excited about the prospect of transferring this creation I’ve been crafting in my imagination to the space. (calm down dear – no, wrong show)

Hunger’s development process is supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

 

Looking for Actors

[edit: Please don't apply if you're just about to go to drama school/uni or if you are still studying - you just won't have time, I know, I've been there : ) Keep track of my work though as there might be projects in the future...thank you!]

I am looking for two actors to work with on my next project ‘Hunger’.

2 roles.

Playing age: 18-27 (you don’t need to be able to play that full range, just within it)
Gender: Depending on actors – either one male and one female or two female.
Physical description: ANY  - I’m looking for good actors – only restriction is playing age. (actors with disabilities welcome)
Requirements of the roles: It is an unusual script that works with vocal techniques, overlapping text, speech is often treated in a musical way. (but no singing – it’s not a musical or musical theatre)

Further Details: I am looking for actors with a strong sense of rhythm, strong voices and an interest in playing with voice and text in a non-naturalistic sense. (There are also moments of naturalism within the play). Performers with skills in dance/physical theatre/mime etc welcome. I am keen to work with South West based actors.

My funding so far is for the development aspect of the work therefore I am looking for generous and highly skilled actors keen to research the play and performance techniques with me.

The dates are as follows:

Audition: 20th July 10-7pm Exeter University, Thornlea Studio 1

Rehearsals:
3rd – 14th Dec Brewhouse theatre Taunton or Exeter
5-12th Jan (precise dates tbc) London
Early Jan: Showings in London and the South West following the development period.

Note:
There will be performance dates in April 2013, further rehersals in July 2013 and possibly a run at Edinburgh Fringe in August 2013 followed by a tour Autumn 2013. (funding pending)

Pay:

3 weeks rehearsals/development paid at £410 p/w plus subsistence.

- For the audition day I will require you to have read the script and prepared a short extract from it. Please get in touch asap for further details.

Further information about my work: http://hannahsilva.wordpress.com

Contact details: silva_danca@yahoodotcom

Please send a short biography and any links to examples of your work with your initial enquiry. video clips of your theatre work are particularly useful…

Supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation